IT department woos ministries to make BPO scheme a success

NEW DELHI: The department of electronics and IT is trying to rope in other ministries running consumer centric programmes as possible clients in order to make its national BPO subsidy scheme a success.

Officials of the department gave a presentation to petroleum ministerDharmendra Pradhan about the scheme last week. They argue that government initiatives with a huge citizen interface can benefit from the BPO scheme that will have centres in small towns and at the same time guarantee business for the companies which will set up these operations.

A case in point is that of the petroleum ministry which has started the PAHAL scheme under which people get subsidy on cooking gas directly into their bank accounts and the Ujjwala scheme, through which government is providing LPG connections to poor families at no cost. For both these schemes, government may require huge customer support in terms of facilitating cylinder bookings or other related enquires, for which these new BPO centres can be considered, said an official privy to the discussions.

The national BPO scheme which is aimed at creating job opportunities in small cities promises a subsidy of up to Rs 1 lakh per seat. With an outlay of almost Rs 500 crore, the scheme looks to incentivise BPO firms to extend their operations beyond the metros and mini metros in cities such as Jaipur and Lucknow.

The official added that the idea behind reaching out to other government ministries was to help companies in finding possible future clients for their business.

Since these centres will be in small cities, getting clients which can be serviced out of there can be a bit difficult. But, if government departments are roped in, it will benefit companies greatly, the person added.

"Of course, the companies will have to meet the requirement and the criteria set by the ministries," said the official.

Apart from petroleum ministry, other potential clients could be the agriculture ministry which is running several market related schemes along with the health department which is also coming up with various technology related projects such as maintaining patient records or giving online appointments.

The government released the tender document for the scheme last month and currently inviting bids from players. Around 90 companies have shown interest in the project by participating in the pre-bid conference held last month. ET had earlier reported that the government is trying to perk up incentives for the scheme by adding women-oriented and differently abled benefits to the proposal.

Besides the Rs 1 lakh subsidy per seat that has already been promised, the government will give more benefits for opening centres in noncapital cities in states, for hiring more women and differently abled and for exceeding the hiring target. These incentives will also be extended to a similar scheme in the Northeast, for which the fifth round of bidding is currently in process.